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OPEN class: Van Kalmthout wins last season race

October 1, 2017

Heavy change of the weather conditions im Imola over night lead to another exciting race on Sunday morning. The last race of the BOSS GP season 2017 brought another face on the P1 than Ingo Gerstls – young Dutch Rinus van Kalmthout won his second podium of the season.

Just two OPEN class drivers were left in the start grid of the BOSS GP season final: Rinus van Kalmthout (Mansell Motorsport) and Phil Stratford (Penn Elcom Racing). Ingo Gerstl, who actually had secured his Championship title 2017 already a couple of races ago, stepped back from the race and didn’t compete. “There are technical issues related to these weather conditions. I don’t wanna risk driving the race without the necessary technical tests”, Gerstl told us.

So it was a free lane for van Kalmthout. And the young Dutch did very well, driving his sixth race in his BOSS GP debut season in Imola. Van Kalmthout left no doubt about his sovereignty and aimed a start-finish-victory. “It was a good race and a good weekend, I really like the track here in Imola”, van Kalmthout said after the podium ceremony. “I’ve never driven that car before in rain, so it felt different and much slower. So I gained a lot of experience this weeekend, which is good for the future.”

Phil Stratford drove a souveign rain-race as well and even managed to overtake FORMULA class driver Florian Schnitzebaumer after lap 3. The gap between van Kalmthout and Stratford indeed was 1:22,972 min, so P1 for the Dutch was never questioned.

Finally Ingo Gerstl defended the BOSS GP Championship 2017 more than successful with eight P1 out of nine races and 200 points in total. A victory, that was never questioned. Runner up – in his first BOSS GP season and making his debut in this car – is Rinus van Kalmthout with a total of 116 points. He is followed from third ranked Phil Stratford with a total of 111 points. Find the full standings of the whole grid on our ranking table.